How Mo from Lemonade Mouth Became Margo from The Magicians: A Mini Essay
Raised in a traditional Indian family, having to hide who she really was, not able to balance her girliness, her smarts, her creativity, and her values, she grew up feeling suppressed. In high school she 'rebelled' by secretly dating Scott. For most of their early relationship, it was much more about what he needed and wanted than her. They broke up and she found a new friend who tried to Good Guy himself into a relationship. Eventually things turned out pretty okay, with her and Scott making amends and getting back together and him joining the band (taking us to the end of the movie).
The band sees a pretty high level of success afterwards. Her father, though he said he would support her, never gets used to seeing his daughter in short skirts, lots of make up, putting college on hold for a silly music career, in this very public relationship with a white boy, and ultimately doesn't really support her. Her mother, being a dutiful Indian wife, follows his lead, and her relationship with her family becomes all but nonexistent. As the band continually gets more successful, things get shaky with the band too. Wen's temper only gets worse from what it was. Like her father, who wound up in jail for it, Olivia starts dabbling in drugs. Stella being so outspoken means there's venues that won't allow them to play and opportunities they lose out on. As their fame rockets, Scott's self-motivated attitude comes back, acting like he was always a member of the band, and eventually she finds out he cheats on her. They get into a huge fight over this, resulting in Scott leaving the band. The band, which as we've seen, largely works off of collaborative mojo is thrown off. Charlie, who always harbored feelings for her and is bitter about not being chosen, lashes out and says she never should have brought him into the band in the first place and all the bands problems are her fault. The band finally crumbles to a point where it can't be brought back any more.
So she returns home, with no band, her father upset she 'wasted' her early 20s by touring with her band and not going to college. She lost all her friends when the band fell apart and, well, Charlie isn't the only one who blames it at least slightly on her (they always have played blame game when things go wrong). She has nothing..nothing but a whole lot of pain. And it's started to make her bitter. One day, on her way home from the store....she's suddenly transported to a college campus instead.
She takes the Breakbills exam and passes with flying colors (as Fogg points out, you didn't /really/ think your whole band could just suddenly know lyrics to a song they'd never heard before and be able to sing and play it together while harmonizing on the spot without a little magic, did you?). When someone asks her name, she goes to reply but stops herself--Mohini just reminds her of the family she now has broken ties with and was always shortened to that godawful masculine Mo anyway, and she's tired of being expected to live up to Indian stereotypes because of her looks and her name--so she gives a new, more anglo name, Margo (in timeline 40, one time it was Janet, she's had a few over the timelines, depending on what she feels in the moment).
She sees this boy, clearly out of place, a bit of the country boy reminding her of Wen under the surface, with the confident arrogance of Scott, the messy hair of Charlie, the outspoken in your face type like Stella, but with a secret heart of gold like Olivia....and she clings to him immediately making friends. And thankfully he's gay so there won't be a repeat of the Scott/Charlie situation (which is why she's so upset by the three-way because ding dong she was wrong but it's totally on her this time; also why she gets so upset every time things are shaky between her and El because it's like losing her whole band again). She spends a massive chunk of the money she made in the band to get she and Eliot all new wardrobes (no, no, he cannot be wearing those Indiana farm clothes), paying off Todd to use the name Todd not Eliot, and throw leaving parties in the Physical Cottage to become year one royalty all but worshipped by their second year. She had already transformed herself once, it was all the easier the second time.
And by the end of it, Margo winds up fulfilling little Mohini's biggest dream--being High King of Filory, the books she so loved in her childhood (remember, she says she loves them too and is the only one besides Q and Jules, and really, little Mohini reading is daddy's favorite) and has learned to take no shit and rely on no one because you never know when it's going to all fall away. And she may have made little Mohini's dreams come true, but Mohini, that naive self conscious unsure girl from high school? She's So Gone.
jimmyeatworldofficial
titsay
2087
germansingergirl
kianamaiart
origamiaround
